Its A Long Road Home
by deemarie
Summary: Sequel to You Just Have to Keep Moving. Will The Traveler be able to go back to New York? She's not so sure. FINISHED! Do people want another story in the series?
1. Default Chapter

It's A Long Road Home.

By Deemarie

Disclaimer: Sadly, tonight I do not own Newsies. I own anybody you don't recognize. I think. I hope I haven't accidentally lifted someone's characters. If I did tell me and I'll change with proper evidence and all that.

Author's Note: Due to popular demand (one request from Fastdancer) this is a sequel to Just Keep Going. Please read that first. Oh, and later on in the story Anna-Maria is not bulimic, okay?

I study my hands. I've got broken nails with cracked dry skin. When I was a newsie my hands were always dirty but they were never like this. There are old scars and new. I've got swollen palms from being hit with a ruler or a cane or anything Matron Smith can get her old, fat paws on. There are scars on my back and it seems like a permanent lump behind my left ear.

When I first returned to the Newark Home I looked for an escape route whenever possible. I actually did make it out twice. Once another girl named Toady ratted me out and another time a guard caught me. But it has been more than a year. It is now September 1, 1899. I was recaptured in August of 1898. I figured that Magic would find me or Race or anyone. Sometimes I feel like I'd sell my soul to get out. 

"Anna-Maria Higgins! Stop daydreaming and get back to scrubbing that floor now!" Matron Smith screams and sends a mop handle crashing into my head. I hunch a little closer to the floor and dip my red hands into the lye solution. Maybe it's better not to think anymore. Maybe it's better to accept. I can't keep going much longer. I've never been locked up for quite this long before. When I was younger Race and I used to be able to get out for weeks until someone caught us.

"Anna-Maria? Are you okay?" the soft whisper came from Julia Martin, one of the youngest girls here, only five. "It's time to eat Anna-Maria. Come on."

I get up and follow Julia to the dining hall. Poor kid has only been here for two weeks. She's such a sweet little thing that I hope they don't break her. I hope she, at least, can stay strong.

"Lord, please help these wicked sinners to see the error of their ways. Let them forget being newsies and things of that wicked nature. Please help them to cast off the rags of their former wild selves and become obedient servants to You and to the good folk that feed and clothe them so generously out of their own pockets." Warden Harper always gives the same prayer.

I shake my head and look around at all the things we're to be happy for. Clothes made out of the cheapest, ugliest calico around. Greasy soup made out of cabbage and not much else. Any day that I lived starving on the street was better than this. There I had my freedom and the racetracks. A river to swim in. Newspapers to sell. And friends, much as I didn't want to admit it.

I choke down my food and go up to the dormitories. At first when I got there the girls tried to fight me, but I trained under the best street fighters in New York. The newsies. Now they leave me alone and I leave them alone.

Later I awake and run for the bathroom. I throw up all my food just as I have every day for two weeks. I don't mean to. I can't keep it down. I don't understand why. There is no way I can be pregnant and I don't have a fever. Slumped against the wall I catch sight of myself in the mirror and really look at myself. My once thick black hair is dirty and stringy hanging against my face. I have a grey complexion instead of a tan like I used to. And my blue eyes? Dull and dead looking with black circles under them. This is Tony's sister? The girl Spot Conlin maybe fell in love with? How could I have let this happen? How could I have lost hope? There is going to be a way I can get out. And I have to keep looking.

The next day I'm in the best mood in months! It's Saturday so all the people looking for good servants will be here. Maybe they'll want to stroll outside. But that also means I get to visit with Warden Harper. My weekly interrogation about "Where, exactly, might your brother Anthony be Anna-Maria? Just try to think. Maybe a good whipping will help you remember, eh?" I've never let anything slip but I hate to admit that it is sometimes hard.

I take my shower and really try to rub the dirt off my body. I think I succeed. Anyway I look better than I did.

Today is the usual blend of people asking how strong I am and me trying to look sickly. I also get an accustomed beating from the hands of Harper. "Honest, Warden, me and Anthony parted after we left here. I have no idea where he could've gone. Honest!" 

Ah, yes life goes on right? I'm in my bunk trying my hardest not to move. Sore spots all over, especially in my ribs. Now I know what Magic was talking about when she said that Spot bruised her ribs. Either she's got a high pain tolerance or I've got a low one because I really hurt! 

I look up idly when I hear Matron Smith coming with another prisoner (they like to call them residents but I believe in calling them as I see them). Must be a new one tonight because she's giving her speech.

"Now I won't tolerate any mixing with the boys. I want all my girls to be good girls. Breakfast at 5:00 and dinner at 5:00. Lights out at nine. You'll either be scrubbing floors, working the kitchen or in the laundries. Here you are. Take any empty bunk." She slams the iron bars of the door shut and locks them. 

I hear the customary scramble to stare at the new girl and decide whether she's got anything to steal. Apparently not because Bertha Torgrenson has came back to her bunk across from mine. 

Next thing I know there's little Julia leaping onto my bunk asking questions, "Hey Anna-Maria this one's got a funny accent. She says she's from New York! Where's that? Is it in Newark somewhere? Plus she's got some red hair. But not all red hair. Most of its brown. Why's that?"

I take a deep breath but before I leap off my bunk I tell Julia "New York is a city in New York State. She dyes her hair."

I walk over to a top bunk where the new girl staring at the ceiling. When she hears footsteps she tenses, almost as if she wants to jump out a handy window. Then she sees me and smiles.

"Why fancy meeting The Traveler in The Newark Home For Wayward Children."

"Magic? Where'd you come from? Did you get my message? How's Brooklyn? How's Manhattan? Hell, how's New York?" I babble on excitedly, ignoring the stares of the other girls.

"I can see I'm going to have to talk more than I like tonight, hmm?" Magic told me rolling her eyes.

"Answer the questions, Magic."

"Okay, okay. Obviously I came from New York. Actually I lived in Newark for about a week before I got picked up. They don't look too kindly on stealing apples."

"No kidding. How do you think I got picked up when I was younger? Well, actually it was for stealing _and_ shooting craps." I told her.

"Yes, I got your message. Alley Cat got picked up for breaking and entering and saw it. When Midtown decided to get its spy out a week later she came and told me. I hopped a train and got here. I was going to try to get you out from outside but there's too many bars on the windows." She pushed her hair out of her face. "New York has changed a lot. Manhattan led a strike in July. Now there's kind of a union. Jack Kelly is the leader. Or he was. Its pretty much disbanded now."

I paused before asking about Brooklyn. She told me that after I left Spot closed borders. Nobody came in, nobody went out except birdies, and they had to have special permission. Spot was still a good leader, but he was hard. There was no rule breaking and no warnings. Some days a sneeze could get you kicked out. 

She continued on "Jacky-boy, Boots and a new kid The Walking Mouth broke borders to tell us about the strike. Spot seemed like he was going to be okay for a while after that. Then the day after we won the thing Racetrack went to Spot and asked if he'd heard from you. Spot snapped. He started beating on Race and then the rest of Brooklyn and Manhattan got in on the fight. It was some sort of free for all. Now borders are wide open in order for Brooklyn and Manhattan to have some sort of war. It isn't safe to walk down the street in Manhattan if you're from Brooklyn and vice versa."

"Oh my God. A lot has changed." I whispered, sick about the thought of either Spot or my brother or my friends getting hurt. "You know about Racetrack and me right?" I asked Magic.

"Are you kidding? I was there in the train yards when you were telling him to get away from you! But it is your story to tell and you sounded very scared." She told me.

"I was afraid to come back here. They said they were going to hurt Tony." I told her.

"I figured it was something like that." She sighed. "Now go back to your bunk and go to sleep. We've got a busy day tomorrow."


	2. The Planning and Execution of Magic's Pl...

"Hey, wake up. Wake up." Magic was leaning over me and whispering.

"Good God. What time is it?" I yawned. I never have been a morning person. I can just barely get up when Matron Smith is threatening to beat me until "You start bleeding out your idiotic ears Anna-Maria!" 

"Three o'clock in the morning. We've got to talk about a plan. Is there anyplace private we can go?" 

I thought for a few seconds before replying, "The only place I can think of is the bathroom. _Most_ of the girls savor every bit of sleep they can get."

I stumbled out of bed and showed Magic the way to the bathroom. Funny how Matron Smith doesn't care how often the girls' bathroom is cleaned but she wants hers done every other day. The bathroom is filthy.

"Well, escape plans," Magic pondered. "Shall we go with the tried and true? We could do a Jack Kelly and leave in a carriage. Perhaps the window by way of the roof. Or should we be originals? I have some ideas, but I'm not sure of the logistics of the place. And how much time do we want to spend here anyway?"

"I don't care how we get out just as long as I get out. I haven't been outside for longer than fifteen minutes in almost a year!" I would've screamed but I remembered the other girls just in time. But I also wondered, what in the world was a Jack Kelly?

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I guess we'll have to go original. I'd need longer to get rope and things. Go back to bed. I'll give you a signal when we need to talk." Magic told me.

"Hey I've escaped the Refuge too you know! It's not like I'm a child." I told her, more than a little angry all of a sudden.

"Oh, Annie. I know that, but you've been in jail for more than a year. Your instincts will be dulled. You know as well as I do the way to keep instincts sharp is to actually live on the street." Magic spoke to me in a soothing tone of voice.

I nodded understandingly and started back to bed. Magic is the best there is and I just have to accept that she knows what she's doing. No matter how much I'm used to being in control of

"Girls, girls! Wakey, wakey! Get out of bed you lazy little bums." All too soon Matron's voice echoed through the large bunkroom.

I slipped out of bed and helped little Julia tie her hair back. Then it was time for breakfast. The same prayer and the same watery gruel to eat as. Just like every breakfast. I glanced over at Magic who was eating as if it were a Thanksgiving dinner. She told me once that she was just happy to have food.

Matron Smith stood and began to speak, "Now children today we have a new girl. Her name is Colleen Donnelly and she comes from Newark. Stand up Colleen. Thank you. Today girls in row one will scrub, two will do kitchens and three will do laundry."

So Magic told them her name was Colleen. I don't think so. I doubt if anyone remembers Magic's real name anymore but Magic and Spot, maybe. 

I stand and start clearing and taking dishes to the kitchens.

"Anna-Maria, you'll be washing today. Julia and Bertha can dry. When Anna-Maria is done she can help me chop cabbages and peel potatoes. The others can get started scrubbing the kitchen down." Cook told the ten girls of row two.

I stand on my aching feet and scrub dishes and cups and spoons for what seems like forever. After I'm down with those I start on the big cauldron Cook uses to make her gruels and soups. My hands start to protest being dipped in scalding water and I'm very relieved when the mountain of table settings stops growing larger.

I wipe my hands off on my apron, which is an entirely different pattern of flannel than the calico dress. They are both equally ugly though. I suppose I can't complain. If a condition of my escape would be that I'd have to wear this exact same outfit for the rest of my life I would before you could say Jack Robinson.

After chopping a huge amount of cabbage I pile it into a pot of water on the stove. Then I begin to peel potatoes. Cook takes the actual potatoes and feeds them to Warden Harper and Matron Smith. We get the potato peelings in our soup. We don't get many of those either. In the soup there is also a soup bone that has been around since before the flood as Junior from Queens used to say. Usually that was just before we got chased around Queens by the formerly old and decrepit bull he'd just described.

Wiping my sweaty hair out of my eyes I look up to see Magic nodding at me from the hallway. Catching her drift I ask Cook if she'll let me go to the bathroom and leave the kitchen.

"Magic? Are you out here?" I whisper cautiously when I walk a bit farther out into the hall.

'Yes Annie, follow me." Magic's quiet reply came from the shadows just a tiny bit ahead and to my right. I follow her down the stairs into the basement. I gulp as I figure out where we are heading. The isolation room!

"Magic, I don't think this is such a great idea. I tend to get a little sick in that room." I hope she heard me, but she doesn't seem to be paying any attention. I really can't stand isolation. That was where they threw me after I ran away those two times this year. It is a totally dark airless cell. And I woke up hurting very badly those times. The warden had beaten me into unconsciousness before throwing me in. Therefore, this room does not have very pleasant memories for me.

Oh, God. That's where we are. Magic goes to sit down and pulls me down next to her.

"Okay I'll make it quick. Tonight we have to escape." She informed me matter of factly. "We'll be going out the front door."

I interrupt rather skeptically "Oh, yeah? How in the world are we possibly going to do that?!"

She smiles and shakes her head. "Have some faith Annie. The warden is having a dinner party of potential benefactors. We have to get on the waitress list because they'll give us new clothes. I'll take care of that. All you have to do is figure out some cloaks for us to wear and blend in as we leave."

I grin. This plan sounds just as if it might work perfectly. "All right Magic or Colleen I suppose. New York here we come."

"Colleen Donnelly isn't my real name. And this plan is going to beat all other escapes! Even Jacky-boy's." She smiled at me.

"I'm sorry here but am I missing something? What was Jack Kelly's famous escape?" I finally remember to ask what I have been wondering about since last night.

"I'll tell you while you are walking back to the kitchens. I can tell you're about ready to have a nervous breakdown in here."

Leaving the isolation cell I stumble over a body crouching outside the door. "Julia Martin what are you doing here!" I cried out furiously.

"I had to go to the bathroom too and Cook said I could go with you so I followed you." Julia whimpered when she saw the irate faces of me and Magic.

I looked at Magic and she looked at me, then we spoke at the exact same time, "We'll have to take her with us." 

Magic was mumbling under her breath and counting on her fingers as we walked back (I had Julia's hand in a tight grip) to the kitchen. Totally forgotten was the infamous Jack Kelly escape plan.

Finally she turned to me and said, "We'll have to sneak Julia out of the bunkroom. No wait, we'll have her wait in the girls' bathroom and then we'll climb through and get her."

"What are you talking about? The bathroom is on the third floor. And I thought you said there were too many bars on the windows to get anybody out." I burst out with a stream of quite chatter.

"It'll be fine. I just have to do some filing of the bars beforehand. And honestly, have you ever seen a wall I can't get up or over somehow."

Strangely enough, I feel quite reassured by Magic's words. Now if there wasn't so much that could go wrong.

I am able to wheedle Cook into letting me go to the bunkroom to wait for dinner at four forty rather than ten to five. I use that time to run upstairs into the storage attic. I just know that there has to be two cloaks somewhere in storage. After quickly looking through three dusty boxes I come across two cloaks, a dark blue one and a black one, that aren't too badly moth eaten. I take them downstairs and in the nick of time I am able to hide them under my mattress before the other girls and Matron Smith come in.

"Quiet girls. Quiet." Matron starts speaking and everyone ignores her. "Shut up you good for nothing lazy brats!" When she screams and stops acting 'classy' you know you'd better shut up or you will regret it.

"Thank you. Now I need two girls to serve the Warden and his guests their dinner tonight." Amid the shouts of _please Matron pick me _she looks down at the paper in her hand "Let's have Colleen Donnelly and Anna-Maria Higgins?" She looked down at her paper evidently puzzled at seeing my name. Apparently I am not the most eligible candidate for good manners. She shrugs it off though and tells us to report at seven o'clock sharp!

Tonight dinner doesn't seem near as disgusting as it usually does. Maybe knowing that I won't have to eat it tomorrow is the trigger. I'm also issued a plain grey dress. It's rather old but in good shape and much better than what I'm wearing. I'm told I'll have to return it. Okay. Sure I will. Don't worry Matron.

After supper I sneak some blankets into the bathroom and hide them behind one of the stalls. I tell Julia that when people are done using the bathroom to go in there and wait.

Serving dinner is absolutely horrible. I have to smile at all these people who talk about how I can rise above my beginnings and become a servant or if I'm really lucky and reach the pinnacle of all my hopes I could be a shopgirl! Oh, my. Plus there are girls my age here with their parents. They look down their noses at me like I'm trash. I'm not. I may be a street rat but my life was so much better than theirs when I was on the outside. I could go wherever and I didn't have to worry about how that takes me off the marriage market. And I can't believe that they are having roast beef and potatoes.

"So little girl," an old man asked me "What did you have to eat today? Was it nourishing?"

I am tempted to answer with the truth but I glance over at Magic and she shook her head. She's probably right. If I make Warden Harper mad we'll never get out of this place tonight. "Sir for breakfast I had hot oatmeal, for lunch I had chicken potpie and for dinner I had soup and bread."

He smiled benevolently as he patted my head and left. Magic and I cleared the table while Matron Smith watched.

"Hiccup, girls I think I'll just go on upstairs. Hiccup." I laugh inside as Magic and I exchange looks. Matron is as drunk as a skunk! Perfect.

We get the cloaks from where I hid them and pull them on while we hurry outside with the last of the guests.

"Smell that fresh outside air." I gasped as we ran around the side of the building. My first taste of the outside in more than six months!

Magic directs me to a fire escape and we start to climb. I just can't look down. Don't look down. Ack! I looked down.

"Annie, here." Magic handed me a rope tied around her waist as she prepared to climb to the bathroom window horizontally. I closed my eyes but eventually had to peek. Magic was balancing on a tiny ledge and filing away at the last iron bar. Quickly she opened the window and pulled out tiny Julia all wrapped up in blankets. She used a blanket to make a sling and tied Julia to her front.

"Annie, pull on the rope hard and very quickly." Her voice was the tensest I'd ever heard it.

I pulled and Magic practically ran along the ledge. The last few steps she almost fell. When she realized this she threw herself over into the fire escape.

"Magic are you okay? Are you okay Julia?" I asked anxiously.

Magic just gave me a quick nod and began moving down the ladder as fast as she could move. When she got down she ran across the courtyard and went against the wall. I followed as closely as I could. Strangely Julia was still asleep or at least dozing. 

"Look, Annie. Do you think you could still get over a wall?" Magic asked me seriously.

"I think so." I said and when Magic nodded I ran, jumped, and vaulted myself to the top. Magic called from the bottom, "Catch this rope and haul Julia up." I did and took into my arms a now awake and very frightened little girl. Then Magic got herself up the wall and we went under the bars around the top.

After about fifteen minutes of walking we got to the train yards and on a train for New York.


	3. Confidences on the Train

"Hey Annie, is something the matter?" Magic asked me as we clacked along in the train.

"I just get a little sick when I ride in a train." I gulped running to the edge of the boxcar and retching over the side.

Magic came over and sat next to me while I was sitting in the corner holding my stomach. Julia was sleeping across the boxcar.

"Don't think of it Annie. Tell me about when you were little, okay?" She said while patting my shoulder.

I swallowed hard, "All right. Tony and I are about sixteen years old so we were born in 1883 in Newark. We're not sure of the exact date so we used to celebrate on New Year's. We never knew our pop because Ma didn't know exactly who he was. Ma's name was Louisa Higgins. She was full blood Italian so I'm not sure where the Higgins came from." I stopped talking for a few seconds while I tried not to get sick.

"Go on Annie. Keep talking." Magic encouraged me.

"Umm. She wasn't exactly the best mother. She was a prostitute, you know. She didn't care what Tony and me did as long as we were quiet. So all Tony and me's love came from our uncle Giovanni Ribisi, ma's brother. He's the one who taught how to gamble. Then one night he got caught cheating the wrong person and ended up dead. Tony and I left Ma and lived on the streets for a year till we were caught by Harper when we were ten. Then we escaped and went to New York." I finished up my story and shrugged.

We rode in silence a few minutes until I must've started turning green again.

"Wait, I'll tell you mine now okay? Don't get sick again." Magic's voice turned pleading.

I nodded mutely.

"I was born in 1882 in County Kerry in Ireland. The most beautiful county. I was the middle child. I had an older sister Mary Brigid and two younger brothers Jamie and Patrick. Me mam and pap decided when I was eight to take the family over to America. We got on a ship and sailed across the sea. Baby Patrick was only six months old and he died just a few days into the journey. Mam was poorly after that and when Jamie fell overboard she stopped living pretty quick. Mary Brigid and Pap died two days before we got to New York. I got off the ship and was hiding when Spot found me." Magic said all this in a monotone.

"All right," I said weakly, "I've got two questions for you. One, what did you do for Spot all those years?"

"First I sold as his partner and then when Spot decided he might want to be Brooklyn's leader someday I joined Staten Island as a spy and got trained. When Spot beat Dollar out three years later he called for me and I showed up." Magic sounded a little more cheerful.

"And what's your name? Your real name?" I asked.

"Now that is something no one knows anymore. Not even Spot. I never even told him." Magic told me.

I respected that. We've all got to have something of our own. Soon I dozed off and before I knew it we were pulling into New York City. 


	4. The Beginning

Magic leaped from the train as it slowed down and I threw Julia out after her. Then I screwed my eyes shut and jumped. Somehow I landed on my knees and skidded along the gravel in the train yards. Way to pick a train that doesn't stop in New York! Now I've got two skinned knees and a ripped dress.

I get up and Magic wordlessly wipes my knees off with her apron. Then she hoists Julia on her back and starts walking into the city. I take a deep breath, say a prayer to whichever saint watches over street rats and follow.

I want to stand in the middle of a street and just look around. Newark may be where I was born but I know now that New York is where I've always been meant to be. Of course, Magic is sticking to the alleys and the shadows because we're in Manhattan's territory. Nobody knows her for Brooklyn but she's taking no chances.

"Hey Magic, where are we going? Magic?" I ask softly. Naturally Magic just keeps walking. I sigh, as soon as Magic gets back to NYC she's back to her old, closemouthed self.

We finally come to a stop in front of a theater with a picture of a woman on the billboard. Oh, this must be Medda's. I've heard of this place. I always wanted to take in a show but I was too afraid of running into Tony.

Magic finally turns to me and says, "Medda can't have kids. She'll take Julia until she's old enough to live on the streets. Or maybe she'll be a singer?"

I look down, rather disappointed. Julia has always reminded me of what I could've been. Sweet, trusting. But Magic is right. If I want Julia to be stay sweet and trusting she can't be a newsie until she's old enough to take care of herself. She can't go to the streets too early. Not like me. And Magic and Spot and Race and a hundred others I could name.

I look up and nod and we walk through the doors. We end up backstage watching a redheaded singer.

"Birdie! What are you doing here? This place is lousy with Manhattan. Jack's going to make a speech about Brooklyn!" Medda gasps in an accented voice.

"Yeah. This is Julia. She's five and can't make it on the streets, can you take her?" Magic pulls the child out from behind me where she was hiding.

"Ohhh. Of course I can. Toby! Give Julia anything she wants and put her to bed in my quarters. It's three in the morning!" Medda says sounding as happy as if she'd won a thousand dollars.

"Where am I going? Where are you going?" Julia turned to me with a puzzled look on her face.

I swallow hard, "You're going to live with Medda. She'll be like an aunt. Yeah, an aunt. I don't know where I'm going quite yet. But I promise I'll visit you whenever I can"

"Oh. All right. Will she sing me bedtime lullabies like my granny used to?"

I look over at Medda and see tears in her eyes as she nodded yes, she would sing bedtime lullabies and do anything to make this wonderful little girl happy.

"Of course. Now be a good girl." I say cheerfully.

"Okay." Julia said and grabbed Toby's outstretched hand. Then she turned and said, "Goodnight Magic, night Anna-Maria. Goodnight Aunt Medda." 

After she and Toby walked away Medda turned to me and said "Now who are you dear? Now I don't mean to sound rude but you look terrible."

I looked pleadingly at Magic and she stepped up to explain, "This is The Traveler, Medda. You know about her? She's been in prison for over a year. How long till Jack's speech?"

"Ahh, yes. The little girl Spot and Race are fighting over. The one who disappeared?" Medda nodded understandingly. "Kelly's speech will be in about fifteen minutes."

"Yeah, close enough. Can she clean up and borrow some clothes before that. I think we want to make an entrance." Magic smiled wryly.

Medda was heading onstage but she nodded and pointed to her dressing room. 

Magic and I headed in there. I washed in clean, unused water for the first time in a long time! We scrubbed until the rinse water ran clear. Then I pulled on a pair of knickers and a cotton shirt that Magic unearthed somewhere. I looked at myself in the mirror. I was clean and my hair was untangled and hanging straight down my back. Best of all, my eyes looked alive and snapping again. I looked like myself for the first time in months. I thought I had looked good after scrubbing in Newark, but that just took the first layer of grime off. Even the old scars and aches didn't bother me as much.

"Wow, girlie. You clean up better than I expected." Medda said, surprised. "You remind me of someone though. Can't think of who. Oh, listen to the speech!"

"Fellow Manhattan newsies! The time has come to really get to the real street fighting. Tonight we're going to decide whether to get the other neighborhoods involved in this. First lets remember what that we used to be friends with Brooklyn. But then he attacked our own Racetrack Higgins and claimed that Race stole his girl, The Traveler. Now Racetrack won't give us any details but he assures me that this was not the case and that Spot was the one who harmed The Traveler. And who are we to believe? Our own? Or an outsider?" Jack waited a few seconds to let this all sink in before continuing, "Now does anyone have anything to say before The Mouth puts it to a vote?"

Somehow I'm not surprised to hear Magic's voice coming from the back of the theater. Suddenly she's onstage talking.

"I'm from Brooklyn. No wait! I've got something to say. Spot saw Race and The Traveler talking late one night outside a gambling and drug place. Naturally, being from Brooklyn he assumed the worst and tried to forget the one girl he ever thought he could love. Then Race brought it up and Spot went crazy. No worse than Kelly went when he found Sarah cheating on him with Morris Delancey though." Magic paused having the entire hall in the palm of her hand. "Now, I bring you someone who can tell you the entire truth." She gestured for me to come out. I don't want to but it's the only way I can stop what I never meant to start.

I step out onto the stage amid total quiet and I start to talk. "I'm The Traveler. I've been in The Newark Home for Wayward Children for over a year now. Umm. I never wanted to leave New York. But Snyder caught me and I had to go back to the one place I never wanted to see again. I never wanted my brother to see it again either. I guess I'm not making a lot of sense. But maybe if I tell you my brother's name it'll make more. It's Anthony Louis Higgins. You'll know him as Racetrack." I burst out finally breaking my code of silence. Warden Harper has lost his contact in New York, remember Magic said Snyder is rotting in jail.

My brother steps onto stage and hugs me. "Thanks Anna-Maria. Now go see Spot before I break your neck or he finds me and breaks mine. But come stay in Manhattan for a while after. We've got a lot more to catch up on. I finally won at the track! Now go. I'll take care of this here." He whispered. He turned to the screaming, puzzled audience and tries to calm them down until a boy who must be "The Walking Mouth" gets Jack to shout for quiet. 

I push through the crowds to Magic's side. She leads me out a side door and onto the street. Soundlessly we run the streets and back ways taking every short cut that we know trying to get to Brooklyn.

When we get to the warehouse Magic turns to me. "Be careful. Just follow me and don't look up."

Magic walks in Spot's office, ignoring all the snoring newsies. Spot is sitting there with his head in his hands. He's thinner. I think he's a little taller, but my heart still skips a beat when I see him.

"Magic reporting, Spot." Magic's voice is crisp, businesslike.

"Magic! Where in God's name have you been? Last person to see you was Alley Cat!" Spot slaps her across the face but Magic ducks in time.

"Calm down. I was in Newark taking care of some of your unfinished business. She's right behind me." Magic slips out the door.

"Well, if it isn't The Traveler." Spot smirks. "Come back to try to hurt me or something? Sleeping around in New Jersey now too, huh?"

"Spot, it's not like that. I was in Newark's version of the Refuge, okay? And I never was with Race, okay? Racetrack is my brother! You are the only guy that I ever wanted. That spending time with didn't feel like a punishment or a bribe."

Spot pushes me against the wall and traps me there, "You swear? You swear on whatever saints and gods you believe in? You swear on Racetrack's life?"

"I swear on everything I have ever believed in." I gasp out.

Spot kisses me then and I'm lost in my love for this boy, this man. I would marry him and spend the rest of my life by his side.

After Spot and I share our experiences of the past year for about an hour he gets called away to try and get one of the littler newsies out of the Refuge. 

I go looking for Magic and find her in our loft, packing to go.

"Magic? Where are you going?" I ask, bewildered.

"I don't know. Philly, Boston, maybe Santa Fe? I can't hang out here in New York any longer."

"But Magic why? You're Spot's best birdie. The best spy in New York." 

"That's just it. I'm Spot's birdie. I've been Spot's sidekick, Spot's birdie for eight years! No one even knows me. I'm practically a ghost once I leave this warehouse. Hell, half of Brooklyn doesn't know who I am." Magic is talking faster and louder than I've ever heard her.

I think for a few seconds and realize she's right. I've never heard her talk about what she enjoys doing. Mostly she talks about information she's learned. She told me about her family but she was desperate. No one even knows her name here!

"Look, Magic. Go wherever you need to but promise someday you'll get in touch again okay?"

She smiled and vaulted out the window. I sit down on my bed and reflect. I've got the love of my life and a brother to get to know. And I hope Magic will find who she is and come home someday. But for now, I'm a newsie in the greatest city on earth.


End file.
